本研究計畫擬以自然科學中的物理、化學及數學為主要研究領域，探討年齡與學術 研究生產力之間的關係，研究對象包括來自任職於台灣地區具物理、化學及數學博士 班的大學之教師以及中央研究院之研究人員。研究生產力以歷年每人所發表之論文數 及論文被引用次數衡量，其中論文數及論文被引用次數取自「科學引文索引」 (SCI-Expanded)資料庫。 本研究計畫首先將比較不同領域，學術研究生產力達到高峰之年齡是否不同? 例 如，數學領域是否比較早達到學術高峰? 此外，本計畫將探討下列議題：年齡對研究 生產力之影響，是否可以用人力資本理論來解釋? 隨著工作經驗的累積，研究生產力 高者可獲得較多的研究經費（物質資本），人力資本與物質資本之重要性，是否隨著年 齡或工作經驗的累積，而有所不同? 不同年齡別，其人力資本與物質資本間的替代程 度如何變化? 不同領域間，兩類資本之重要性不同（例如，數學領域之研究生產力受 研究經費之影響較低，物理領域則較高），其是否因此造成不一樣的年齡－研究生產力 關係 (age-productivity profiles)? 本研究計畫結果有助於我們了解科學家年齡結構的老 化是否會影響到台灣的科學研究產出，進而影響國家競爭力。研究經費的增加是否可 以減輕科學家年齡結構老化的問題?
This research project intends to explore the inter-relationship between age and academic research productivity among Taiwan＇s scientists. The sample will come from the faculty members in Acadmia Sinica as well as in those universities with their Ph.D. programs in mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Research productivity for each faculty in each year is measured by both the number of SCI papers and the citation counts they received. First, we will examine the differences in the ages at the peak of life-cycle research productivity among three fields. For instance, compared to physicists and chemists, do mathematicians tend to reach their peak at earlier ages? Moreover, we will examine the impact of age on research productivity to see whether the theory of human capital can explain the relationship between age and academic research productivity or not. As age and work experience accumulates, those faculty with higher productivity can obtain more research funding (i.e., accumulates more physical capital as opposed to human capital). Then, we intend to answer the following questions: (1) whether the importance of human capital vs. physical capital in their research production function changes as the scientists aged? (2) how the human capital and physical capital can be substitute with each other at different ages and among different fields? The empirical results will help us understand the impact of age structure of our scientists upon Taiwan＇s research productivity.
